The present invention relates to a feeding device that is used in manufacture of annular bodies, e.g., bead wires used for vehicle tires, to store manufactured annular bodies, which are suspended in order.
For example, in a conventional manufacturing process of bead wires, which are used for vehicle tires, a bead wire is shaped by winding a wire material, and its surface is covered with a rubber tape. A plurality of annular bead wires, in which shaping and covering are completed, is supplied in order to a suspension bar for inspection. The suspended bead wires are then stored. Work such as an inspection for a winding condition of the wire material and a covering condition of the rubber tape is performed on each of the bead wires, which are suspended from the suspension bar.
However, the conventional manufacturing process of bead wires has a problem. That is, each bead wire supplied to one end of the suspension bar is manually moved toward the other end by a worker so that the suspended bead wires are arranged on the suspension bar at predetermined intervals. The work to arrange the bead wires on the suspension bar is cumbersome and takes time.
Patent Document 1 discloses a storing device for bead wires that is capable of automatically arranging bead wires.
The storing device of Patent Document 1 is adapted to suspend a bead wire on a suspension bar and feed the suspended bead wire by pushing from the side with a contact portion driven by a cylinder.
However, the storing device of Patent Document 1 needs a spacer placed between each pair of adjacent bead wires to prevent the bead wires from sticking together by stickiness of the rubber tapes on their surfaces. This makes the manufacturing process cumbersome.